n8n Sort nodeConfigure Sort in n8n.

Three jobs come up again and again. Ranking a list before it leaves the workflow is the first: rows pulled from Google Sheets arrive in whatever order the sheet returns them, and a Simple sort on a field name puts the highest value on top, so the first item is the one worth acting on.

Picking without a pattern is the second. The Random type produces a random order in the list, which is what a rotation needs when it has to stop being predictable: shuffle a list of account owners, then let the next node assign the inbound lead to whoever landed first.

The third job is ordering on something the data does not carry as a field. The Code type takes JavaScript that determines the order of any two items, so a priority you hold in your head (paying accounts first, then trials, then free) becomes a few lines of comparison instead of a column somebody has to maintain.

When to prefer something else. Sort changes order and only order. If a field has to be computed, renamed or cleaned before it can be sorted on, Edit Fields (Set) belongs in front of it. If two lists have to become one before being ranked, Merge does the joining and Sort takes over afterwards.

Two limits are worth knowing before the first run. The Sort operation uses the default JavaScript array sort, where the elements being sorted are converted into strings and their values compared, so values line up the way text lines up rather than the way numbers or dates would. And the node runs on the items it receives without opening a workflow: a Schedule Trigger, a Webhook or a tool trigger has to come before it. For how this node sits inside the wider platform, the n8n review covers the ground.